Assured Quality Homecare, LLC, Launches NursePower - Offering In Home Nurse Services
NursePower Complements ASQ’s Award-Winning Home Caregiver Services, Providing Comprehensive In-Home Nursing Care
Over the past five years, we have established Assured Quality Homecare, LLC as Connecticut’s best home caregiver agency. With multiple awards and an industry-leading Personal Care Aide Certification Training program, we are proud to announce the launch of ASQ’s latest endeavor: NursePower.
NursePower provides private nursing care at home for clients who need or want the services of a registered or licensed practical nurse.
Either as a stand-alone service or as a complementary service to your existing home caregivers, NursePower pairs you or your loved one with a highly-trained nurse who will help you feel better at home so you can be better at home.
“Whom Does NursePower Help?”
Every day 10,000 Americans turn 65. And while we are all living longer and, in general, remaining healthier and more active well into our 70s, 80s, and 90s than we did fifty years ago, we still sometimes need help. Especially if we want to age gracefully in the comfort of our own homes.
75% of Americans 65 and older have chronic health issues, including diabetes and dementia. Many have multiple doctor appointments every month. Many take daily medications. Many require a level of care — sometimes temporarily, sometimes intermittently, sometimes permanently — that exceeds the level of care provided by a traditional home caregiver or senior care facility.
Family members are not always available to help. It’s not their fault — they have busy lives.
NursePower Clinical Administrator, Kelley Roy, RN, put it this way: “NursePower was created primarily to ‘fill in the gaps’ in the homecare setting for clients that require services that can only be provided by a nurse.”
For example, one of our clients oversees her elderly parents' medical appointments. They both may have multiple medical appointments each month. It’s often difficult to keep up with the various doctor’s instructions and ongoing medication changes, which creates potential problems and risks.
Her parents often forget to ask questions or don’t know the right questions to ask when visiting with their doctors. When she or her siblings follow up with their parents, they often don’t get a complete medical picture, making it that much more difficult for them to make accurate, safe decisions for their parents.
Because she and her siblings lead busy lives themselves, they hired one of our in-home nurses to ‘fill the gaps’ and accompany their parents to their medical appointments.
Unlike a personal care aide, professional nurse advocates for the client and knows the right questions to ask, which brings a level of clarity to doctors’ medical recommendations. This gives the entire family the confidence and peace of mind to make the right decisions for their parents.
We have another client whose spouse is on Hospice care.
Her husband needs daily medications and injections administered, so she hired one of our in-home professional nurses. Having a nurse come to her home to help her husband has relieved so much of her stress. She can now spend stress-free, quality time with him by being a loving wife and not a caregiver or nurse.
Whether you’re taking care of a spouse or your elderly parents, you may reach a point when you need a private nurse to visit your home. Even if you are taking care of yourself, you may need a nurse to help you with certain medical needs that your caregiver isn’t trained or licensed to help with.
ASQ homecare teams have always been led by nurses. But now, with NursePower, we can provide our clients with a home healthcare nurse who can help them with their specific medical needs.
“How Do I Know if I Need a Private In-Home Nurse?”
A home caregiver team has a few different members:
- 1. Personal Care Aide
- 2. Certified Nurse’s Aide
- 3. Nurse
You or your loved one may need one or all of these team members, depending on your medical and personal needs.
The point is to make sure you have the right person helping you with the right needs.
A nurse can help with medications, injections, and perform various medical procedures. You will want to hire a private nurse if you need help with any of the following.
Administering Medications
If your loved ones need someone to administer medications, this is a service that you want a nurse to do.. Medications are prescribed in a number of formats, including injections, inhalants, eye drops, oral, rectal, g-tube, and topical. These require technical expertise that, if mishandled, can cause injury.
Create a Medication Schedule
Managing multiple medications can be confusing and if handled incorrectly can also be life-threatening. Nurses are trained and experienced with creating and maintaining a complex medication schedule, including filling pillboxes and automatic dispensers.
Bodily Waste Management
If you or a loved one require ostomy care or urinary catheter maintenance, you will need a nurse to help you clean and reapply the equipment so it functions correctly and does not cause irritation, infection, or injury.
Measure and Track Vital Health Information
Just like when you go to the doctor’s office, a nurse will measure your vital signs and record them correctly so they can be shared with your medical team. Health information, such as your blood pressure, heart rate, oxygen levels, etc., impacts your medications and dose levels.
Attend Medical Appointments
Medical appointments can be confusing, especially when you or your loved one have several each month. When you have your own private nurse, you have an expert in the room to advocate for you, ask the right questions, and explain everything to you so you feel comfortable.
Coordinate Care Strategies
Your medical records are shared between all the doctors. But who is coordinating the medical teams to make sure nothing is missed or overlooked? If you have several doctors, you may need a nurse to coordinate all the different care strategies and advocate for you.
Provide Advanced Care Training for Families
Family members are an essential part of the homecare team, but most family members are not medically trained. We can have a nurse provide advanced care training for family members so they feel comfortable and confident helping with certain health needs.
Home Safety Recommendations
Aging in your home can be a blessing. But first, we want to make sure that your home is prepared and safe for you or your loved one. Our nurses will review your home with you and make appropriate safety recommendations, including any necessary equipment.
Personal Medical Care
Personal care is essential to prolonging health. It also makes us feel good so we can live with dignity. Trimming of nails, mouth care, bowel movement supervision, dressing while in bed — these are all services best performed by a nurse.
“How Often Will I Need a Nurse to Visit?”
This depends on your reasons for needing a private in-home nurse.
First, we will coordinate with the rest of your healthcare providers to assess your needs. Then we will sit with you and your loved ones to develop a schedule that will meet all of those needs.
Most clients require regular help, which ranges from a few hours a week to 24-hour care.
We built flexibility into NursePower so that our clients could have options.
Some hire our nurses to oversee a specific need, such as being discharged from a healthcare facility or setting up a medication management schedule.
Some hire our nurses on an hourly basis, such as attending medical appointments or providing advanced care training for family members.
And some clients hire our nurses because a loved one requires constant, ongoing care, such as with hospice. “Many times,” according to Kelly Roy, RN, “especially at the end of life, families are ill-equipped or uncomfortable in making assessments that require administering narcotic medication to their dying loved one.”
Bottom Line: NursePower Is Here to Help
“When clients hire NursePower to provide 1:1 bedside nursing care,” said Kelly Roy, RN, “they can return to their roles as the devoted spouse, son, or daughter and know that their loved one is receiving the attention and support that will provide the care and comfort in the days and weeks ahead.”
Homecare is growing as America ages. We all want to age gracefully and safely in a loving environment. Our homes provide us with comfort where we can be surrounded by memories and loved ones.
But aging at home presents challenges that most families can’t handle alone. Assured Quality Homecare has been providing award-winning home caregivers for the past five years.
Now, with the launch of NursePower, we have expanded our available award-winning home care services to include private nurses.
“Our mission is to help more people,” said Samanta Roseme, CEO. “NursePower makes it possible for us to do that. We are excited to continue growing.”
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About Caleb Roseme
Caleb Roseme is the Homecare Executive Director at Assured Quality Homecare. Caleb oversees the home care agency's operations, ensuring that all systems are in place and that everything flows smoothly. Caleb graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering from the University Of Connecticut in 2007 and has a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Certification from his eight years of working as quality assurance and process engineer at General Dynamics Electric Boat. Caleb is married and, together with his wife, is raising three beautiful children. You can find Caleb volunteering at his church or community in his free time, reading a personal development book, keeping up with the Boston Celtics, or spending time with his Crossfit community.